Europe 2008- 1st Installment- Stuttgart, Praha, Schaldming, Vienna
So, it all started when I met Alexandra in May and discovered that she was headed to Europe for the summer. I had been needing a trip, so I invited myself along. I didn’t even think twice about asking for the time off from work. I hadn’t taken more than a few weeks at a time off in one stretch in over eight years. The only difficulty I encountered was having to use comp time for four of the days because we already had several people off then.
I gave myself a few days off before the trip to pack and get ready and booked my Air France (operated by Delta) flight through Kayak.com, which bounced me to Orbitz.com. The only issue I had with Orbitz is that they have a function to choose your seats. This is a really cool feature except that Orbitz didn’t know what type aircraft I was on and apparently the computer guessed. I ended up having the exact center seat on all four flights. Luckily I was able to beg my way into an aisle seat for the flight from Atlanta to Stuttgart. The window was open so I had two seats to myself. Nice!
So, a little side note: The cost of fuel has apparently had some unintended and unfortunate effects on overseas travel. Remember when booze was free on international flights? I do. Well, not anymore. No Frei Bier. Well. One free beer…and I am pretty sure that was because there was a thundershower at Atlanta and we had to sit in the plane on the runway for over an hour while weather cleared. Props to the Delta flight crew though. They were bringing water out to us even as the Captain was powering up the engines for our takeoff roll. I heard them arguing about it.
Attendant 1: “What are you doing? This is an active runway!”
Attendant 2: “Well, you can tell the Captain if you want. I’m taking out water!”
Eventually, they were all hustling trays of water out to us. Thanks!
So, into the air we went for the most enjoyable nine-hour flight of my life. We landed in Stuttgart and, of course the Jetway was broken so we ended up being bussed to the smaller, short hop Customs. Four German Customs agents. Two for EU citizens and two for all of us. My luck held, and as they had let us out the back of the plane, I got out first and was through Customs in about 20 minutes.
The plan was for Alexandra to meet me in the airport if her train from Italy stopped there, otherwise meet at the Hotel in Stuttgart. I checked about and didn’t see her so I stopped at the Info booth and got the train info I needed to get to the Hotel. 20 minutes later I am at the Hotel. At bit of a dump, but who cares? I met up with Alexandra and we went for a walk and then took the train into town. We wanted to have some proper German food so we looked around. Lots of Italian. Lots of Kebab. (They seem to love Kebab over here. Shops everywhere!) Not much proper home-style food. We finally settled on a brewery in town. I had the Summer beer and some sausage and potatoes. OK beer. OK sausage. Awful potatoes. Ugh. Think of lukewarm potato salad with waaaayyyy too much mustard. Really hard to eat. And our server had all the personality of a prison camp guard. Maybe she was just moonlighting…I later discovered that she was just being…German.
We took the train back to the Hotel and had a shower and nap. Then headed back out to look for a better dinner.
OK. Side note time. The good old US of A needs to make a serious change in the way we think about transportation. I love my motorcycle, and I am fond of my truck and really need it. But I don’t need to drive them every day. I ride my bicycle when I can, and enjoy it a lot. I rode to REI a few days before the trip and on the way back stopped to have some Vietnamese food at a favorite restaurant. The restaurant is in a big strip mall. There was not a single bike rack, pole, or tree upon which to lock my bike to be found. I was pissed.
How does this happen? We don’t take this stuff seriously. In the USA, people who ride bikes are seen by the public at large and either too destitute to own a car, lost their license to legal trouble, or homeless. The same is true with trains and busses. The busses in San Diego are awful. It takes forever to get anywhere, and the Trolley is so limited in the area it covers that it is pretty much useless to 70 percent of the population. So far in Stuttgart, Praha, and Vienna I have been able to take a train to within 4 blocks of anywhere I needed to go.
The current US administration, and quite possibly the next one want to drill oil in the US to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. I say great. The problem is that they only want to lower the price of gas to US consumers and buy time to come up with alternative fuels for our cars. WRONG. We need to get away from dependence on cars and start building mass transit now. In San Diego we just enlarged the commuter lane running up the Interstate 15 corridor? Did we build a trolley line to service those people living along that route who might be interested in taking a train to work? Nope. I sure wasn’t asked and I don’t recall anyone else being asked either. I guess the status quo will continue.
Back to Europe.
We wandered about downtown Stuttgart and hopped on and off a few trains, looking for a place. We finally decided that there were a few small Hofbrau in the village we were staying in. We got back there at about 930 and chose between two likely places. Der Heschlacher Weinstubbe won out. Most likely because there was a lively crowd out front having a good time. We stepped in and had a seat. I checked out the menu, first in German, then English and decided to have a Dunkel and some spatzl and pork. The beer was awesome. I had one with dinner then we moved to the bar where I had several more 0.5 liter bottles and we had a shot of a home made spiced rum. A gallon jug packed with leaves and spices. Very good. The proprietor and his wife were very friendly and we enjoyed their company. A short walk back to the Hotel and a nice night’s sleep, with the exception of the worst pillow I have ever used. It was so thin that it provided less support than a stripper’s boyfriend when he finds out its not his kid.
The next morning we headed out and got our car. Yeah. Car. There is explanation for this. Three of the days were to be spent in Schladming, Austria. This is a small town of 5000 in the mountains of southern Austria. I knew I would need the car, and getting to Praha and Vienna, with Schladming in the middle would be considerably easier in a car.
We got the car, which was pretty cheap by the way. Probably less than a similar rental in the USA. An Opel Corsa 4 door. It had a 1.2 liter motor and a 5 speed manual transmission. Needed a 6th or even 7th gear. I kept checking to see if I was in 3rd. My motorbike has a 1 liter motor, and twice the horsepower. I really had to wring the little bugger’s neck, but with some work, she kept up 140 KPH on the Autobahn, at about 42 miles per gallon. Not bad. Gas is about 1.24 Euro per liter. That’s about 7.25 USD per gallon.
We headed off to Praha, which took us about 5 hours with a few short stops. We rolled into town and straight for the hostel, which as luck would have it was pretty near the city center. We had a private room with our own bathroom. Nice. And great big fluffy pillows. Very nice. The place had had a photo of the pillows on their site, and now I know why. Very important.
A quick change of clothes and out into town. We parked the car across the river on a side street and took a self-guided tour of the square and the bridges. It started to rain a bit, but wasn’t too bad. We grabbed a bottle of beer and hung out under one of the entries to the Charles Bridge. It’s a really amazing bridge with statues of characters from Praha and the Czech Republic’s history lining the sides. We crossed the bridge and wandered into a blues bar that Alexandra had found on her previous trip to Praha, Um Maleho Glenna. We got there as the show was finishing up. The bartender felt bad and asked us how much cover we wanted to pay. We settled on half. I had a few beers, which are relatively (and the only thing that seems to be this way here) inexpensive. A pint of beer is anywhere from 2 to 3 Euro, even in nicer type places. I generally expect to pay 5 or 6 USD at home.
The show was good, what we heard of it. One more beer upstairs and we headed home for some much needed rest. The next AM, we hit up a café down the street for some really good eggs. I don’t know what was in those eggs but the texture and flavor were really nice. Free Internet and email was cheeked and various websites updated. A walking tour of Praha continued with the castle/palace that dominates the Praha skyline the destination. We took the train up the hill (I love trains) and began to walk. It was an amazing place, and I imagined it had seen some serious stuff in its lifetime. From the beginning of Communism to the end of the same, with various rulers and coups, all with an amazing and commanding view of the city below.
Back down into town for some dinner and a night out. It was Friday, so I suspected that it would be a good night. We hit a spot in downtown Praha that looked like the locals were eating there. They were, so I decided to have a farmer’s plate of different meats, dumplings, and sauerkraut. Generally I find that the photo in the menu is a poor representation of the food I am ordering. I expect to get much less. I got more. And more of a plate of pork, sausage, duck, ham, three types of dumplings, and two types of sauerkraut is not a good way to discover the exception to the rule. Not wanting to be rude, I did what I could but ended up leaving enough to get Haiti out of its troubles for a few days at least. Alexandra had salmon. I tried it. It was amazing.
We found another Jazz club, Agharta. A Czech band called Madfinger played. A very young band, with the oldest member probably not much older than 28 or 30. A very talented group, with a female lead singer who was equally amazing in English and Czech. Alto Sax, bass guitar, keyboards, lead guitar, and drums kept things rocking. Of course, we had missed their first set (again) but it was a good night.
Austria was on the list for tomorrow, so we called it a night and headed back after a long walk through town seeing the sights. Roaming bands of teenagers smoking cigarettes and drinking beers were to be seen from time to time. No danger to us, so long as they don’t smell fear. One funny thing I noticed. I had seen a lot of really young people drinking in bars and on the streets, but no one was really out of control. No one has asked me for my ID yet either. I guess I look just a bit older than 16.
I gave myself a few days off before the trip to pack and get ready and booked my Air France (operated by Delta) flight through Kayak.com, which bounced me to Orbitz.com. The only issue I had with Orbitz is that they have a function to choose your seats. This is a really cool feature except that Orbitz didn’t know what type aircraft I was on and apparently the computer guessed. I ended up having the exact center seat on all four flights. Luckily I was able to beg my way into an aisle seat for the flight from Atlanta to Stuttgart. The window was open so I had two seats to myself. Nice!
So, a little side note: The cost of fuel has apparently had some unintended and unfortunate effects on overseas travel. Remember when booze was free on international flights? I do. Well, not anymore. No Frei Bier. Well. One free beer…and I am pretty sure that was because there was a thundershower at Atlanta and we had to sit in the plane on the runway for over an hour while weather cleared. Props to the Delta flight crew though. They were bringing water out to us even as the Captain was powering up the engines for our takeoff roll. I heard them arguing about it.
Attendant 1: “What are you doing? This is an active runway!”
Attendant 2: “Well, you can tell the Captain if you want. I’m taking out water!”
Eventually, they were all hustling trays of water out to us. Thanks!
So, into the air we went for the most enjoyable nine-hour flight of my life. We landed in Stuttgart and, of course the Jetway was broken so we ended up being bussed to the smaller, short hop Customs. Four German Customs agents. Two for EU citizens and two for all of us. My luck held, and as they had let us out the back of the plane, I got out first and was through Customs in about 20 minutes.
The plan was for Alexandra to meet me in the airport if her train from Italy stopped there, otherwise meet at the Hotel in Stuttgart. I checked about and didn’t see her so I stopped at the Info booth and got the train info I needed to get to the Hotel. 20 minutes later I am at the Hotel. At bit of a dump, but who cares? I met up with Alexandra and we went for a walk and then took the train into town. We wanted to have some proper German food so we looked around. Lots of Italian. Lots of Kebab. (They seem to love Kebab over here. Shops everywhere!) Not much proper home-style food. We finally settled on a brewery in town. I had the Summer beer and some sausage and potatoes. OK beer. OK sausage. Awful potatoes. Ugh. Think of lukewarm potato salad with waaaayyyy too much mustard. Really hard to eat. And our server had all the personality of a prison camp guard. Maybe she was just moonlighting…I later discovered that she was just being…German.
We took the train back to the Hotel and had a shower and nap. Then headed back out to look for a better dinner.
OK. Side note time. The good old US of A needs to make a serious change in the way we think about transportation. I love my motorcycle, and I am fond of my truck and really need it. But I don’t need to drive them every day. I ride my bicycle when I can, and enjoy it a lot. I rode to REI a few days before the trip and on the way back stopped to have some Vietnamese food at a favorite restaurant. The restaurant is in a big strip mall. There was not a single bike rack, pole, or tree upon which to lock my bike to be found. I was pissed.
How does this happen? We don’t take this stuff seriously. In the USA, people who ride bikes are seen by the public at large and either too destitute to own a car, lost their license to legal trouble, or homeless. The same is true with trains and busses. The busses in San Diego are awful. It takes forever to get anywhere, and the Trolley is so limited in the area it covers that it is pretty much useless to 70 percent of the population. So far in Stuttgart, Praha, and Vienna I have been able to take a train to within 4 blocks of anywhere I needed to go.
The current US administration, and quite possibly the next one want to drill oil in the US to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. I say great. The problem is that they only want to lower the price of gas to US consumers and buy time to come up with alternative fuels for our cars. WRONG. We need to get away from dependence on cars and start building mass transit now. In San Diego we just enlarged the commuter lane running up the Interstate 15 corridor? Did we build a trolley line to service those people living along that route who might be interested in taking a train to work? Nope. I sure wasn’t asked and I don’t recall anyone else being asked either. I guess the status quo will continue.
Back to Europe.
We wandered about downtown Stuttgart and hopped on and off a few trains, looking for a place. We finally decided that there were a few small Hofbrau in the village we were staying in. We got back there at about 930 and chose between two likely places. Der Heschlacher Weinstubbe won out. Most likely because there was a lively crowd out front having a good time. We stepped in and had a seat. I checked out the menu, first in German, then English and decided to have a Dunkel and some spatzl and pork. The beer was awesome. I had one with dinner then we moved to the bar where I had several more 0.5 liter bottles and we had a shot of a home made spiced rum. A gallon jug packed with leaves and spices. Very good. The proprietor and his wife were very friendly and we enjoyed their company. A short walk back to the Hotel and a nice night’s sleep, with the exception of the worst pillow I have ever used. It was so thin that it provided less support than a stripper’s boyfriend when he finds out its not his kid.
The next morning we headed out and got our car. Yeah. Car. There is explanation for this. Three of the days were to be spent in Schladming, Austria. This is a small town of 5000 in the mountains of southern Austria. I knew I would need the car, and getting to Praha and Vienna, with Schladming in the middle would be considerably easier in a car.
We got the car, which was pretty cheap by the way. Probably less than a similar rental in the USA. An Opel Corsa 4 door. It had a 1.2 liter motor and a 5 speed manual transmission. Needed a 6th or even 7th gear. I kept checking to see if I was in 3rd. My motorbike has a 1 liter motor, and twice the horsepower. I really had to wring the little bugger’s neck, but with some work, she kept up 140 KPH on the Autobahn, at about 42 miles per gallon. Not bad. Gas is about 1.24 Euro per liter. That’s about 7.25 USD per gallon.
We headed off to Praha, which took us about 5 hours with a few short stops. We rolled into town and straight for the hostel, which as luck would have it was pretty near the city center. We had a private room with our own bathroom. Nice. And great big fluffy pillows. Very nice. The place had had a photo of the pillows on their site, and now I know why. Very important.
A quick change of clothes and out into town. We parked the car across the river on a side street and took a self-guided tour of the square and the bridges. It started to rain a bit, but wasn’t too bad. We grabbed a bottle of beer and hung out under one of the entries to the Charles Bridge. It’s a really amazing bridge with statues of characters from Praha and the Czech Republic’s history lining the sides. We crossed the bridge and wandered into a blues bar that Alexandra had found on her previous trip to Praha, Um Maleho Glenna. We got there as the show was finishing up. The bartender felt bad and asked us how much cover we wanted to pay. We settled on half. I had a few beers, which are relatively (and the only thing that seems to be this way here) inexpensive. A pint of beer is anywhere from 2 to 3 Euro, even in nicer type places. I generally expect to pay 5 or 6 USD at home.
The show was good, what we heard of it. One more beer upstairs and we headed home for some much needed rest. The next AM, we hit up a café down the street for some really good eggs. I don’t know what was in those eggs but the texture and flavor were really nice. Free Internet and email was cheeked and various websites updated. A walking tour of Praha continued with the castle/palace that dominates the Praha skyline the destination. We took the train up the hill (I love trains) and began to walk. It was an amazing place, and I imagined it had seen some serious stuff in its lifetime. From the beginning of Communism to the end of the same, with various rulers and coups, all with an amazing and commanding view of the city below.
Back down into town for some dinner and a night out. It was Friday, so I suspected that it would be a good night. We hit a spot in downtown Praha that looked like the locals were eating there. They were, so I decided to have a farmer’s plate of different meats, dumplings, and sauerkraut. Generally I find that the photo in the menu is a poor representation of the food I am ordering. I expect to get much less. I got more. And more of a plate of pork, sausage, duck, ham, three types of dumplings, and two types of sauerkraut is not a good way to discover the exception to the rule. Not wanting to be rude, I did what I could but ended up leaving enough to get Haiti out of its troubles for a few days at least. Alexandra had salmon. I tried it. It was amazing.
We found another Jazz club, Agharta. A Czech band called Madfinger played. A very young band, with the oldest member probably not much older than 28 or 30. A very talented group, with a female lead singer who was equally amazing in English and Czech. Alto Sax, bass guitar, keyboards, lead guitar, and drums kept things rocking. Of course, we had missed their first set (again) but it was a good night.
Austria was on the list for tomorrow, so we called it a night and headed back after a long walk through town seeing the sights. Roaming bands of teenagers smoking cigarettes and drinking beers were to be seen from time to time. No danger to us, so long as they don’t smell fear. One funny thing I noticed. I had seen a lot of really young people drinking in bars and on the streets, but no one was really out of control. No one has asked me for my ID yet either. I guess I look just a bit older than 16.
posted by Masta Shake at 9:14 AM
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